Joey Logano wouldn't say he enters 2014 a tougher person and a tougher driver. But he enters 2014 with it being a little bit easier to show any toughness.

A driver who makes the Chase for the Sprint Cup and finishes eighth in the Cup standings has something to back up the talk or the fender rubbing.

Joey Logano (AP Photo)

So anyone who wants to try to push Logano around not only knows he'll push back (see Denny Hamlin), Logano's competition also knows he has the car and the capability to possibly leave an opponent in the dust (he led laps in 15 races last year).

"I've run up front, I've won races, we've got a ton of top-fives last year, (with) 11 top-fives — you have some ammo behind you to speak for," Logano said. "When you don't feel like you're treated fairly, you're going to say something about it or do something about it.

"At the same time, you don't take it for granted. You obviously give everyone the respect that you feel like you deserve. That's the way I've always raced but maybe when somebody treats me the way I don't appreciate, that maybe has changed a little bit."

So is Logano, who turns 24 in May, a tougher driver now as he enters his second season at Penske Racing compared to a year ago, when he appeared hopeful that a change in scenery would improve on a Joe Gibbs Racing four-year career that showed some untapped youthful potential?

"I'm more experienced with it and kind of understand what to do out there," Logano said. "Every year you become better at that stuff. I don't know tougher is the word for it.

"I feel like maybe you don't put up with as much, maybe that's the definition of being tough."

Logano had a bit of a reputation of a driver who could be pushed around. That likely would happen to any 18-year-old who after a partial Nationwide Series season became a full-time Cup driver on the same team as Hamlin and Kyle Busch.

Hamlin and Logano had an intense feud in early 2013, first at Bristol Motor Speedway and then at Auto Club Speedway in California. They crashed on the final lap in March at California and Hamlin hit the wall, suffering a compression fracture in his lower back.

Because he had seen Hamlin get out of his car, Logano was unaware of the injury. When asked about the move on the final lap, Logano said bluntly: "Denny Hamlin was not going to win that race."

Logano took heat for that comment but was able to put that drama behind him.

"You take every situation and handle it the best way you can and you don't really worry about what people think about you," Logano said. "That's basically what you think. If you don't like me, you don't like me. Oh well."

The one person Logano needs to like him does like him very much. That's car owner Roger Penske.

"He raced these guys wheel-to-wheel with a lot of finesse," Penske said. "He won the race at Michigan by going for it. I think he made a lot of steps forward.

"I think he is his own man now. He is not under the shadow of guys that maybe were better than he was or experienced."

Penske has the driver he thought he would have when he watched Logano win nine Nationwide races in 2012.

Logano ended up with a breakout season in 2013, outperforming teammate and defending Cup champion Brad Keselowski, who failed to make the Chase.

"When you've got Kyle Busch and you've got Hamlin, these guys are superstars, and you're the third guy in the room," Penske said. "He came over to our team and I tried to make the environment here one team, both drivers at the same level.

"We treated them that way and they performed that way."

Logano has his eyes set on winning a Cup title.

"I have a realistic shot of running for this championship this year," Logano said. "That confidence is running through my veins and running through the whole team's veins."

And he has a little bit of fire, too.

"In our mind (as drivers) we're always right — show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser," Logano said. "That's one of my favorite (saying) and something I want to live by. You're going to have that (disagreement).